The #88 Female Artist of the Rock Era: Janis Joplin

Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and as a teenager, befriended a group of outcasts, one of whom had albums by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Lead Belly, whom Joplin later credited with influencing her decision to become a singer. Joplin joined the local choir and began listening to artists such as Billie Holliday and Big Mama Thornton.

Joplin focused on painting at Thomas Jefferson High School and then began singing blues and folk music with friends. Janis attended Lamar State College of Technology and the University of Texas before leaving for San Francisco, California. In 1964, Joplin and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen recorded several blues standards that were later released as the bootleg album The Typewriter Tape.

About this time, Joplin became heavily involved in drugs, succumbing to the temptation of speed and heroin, and she was a heavy drinker. In 1965, Janis's friends, aware of the physical effects of her amphetamine habit, paid for a bus fare so she could return home to Port Arthur. This great involvement by her friends helped Janis tremendously, as she avoided drugs and alcohol, wore modest dresses and enrolled in Lamar University. But unfortunately, the change was temporary.

Joplin performed solo in Austin, accompanying herself on guitar. She recorded seven studio tracks in 1965 that were later issued as a new album in 1995 called This is Janis Joplin 1965.

Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, circa 1966–1967.

Joplin's bluesy vocal style attracted the attention of the group Big Brother and the Holding Company, which had become popular in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Chet Helms, a promoter who had known Joplin in Texas and at the time was the manager of Big Brother, recruited her to be the group's lead singer. Joplin returned to San Francisco and joined Big Brother in June of 1966. Janis debuted with the group at the Avalon Ballroom. A photograph there, later published in a book by David Dalton, shows Joplin before her relapse into drugs.

The group signed a recording contract with Mainstream Records before Joplin relapsed into drinking and intravenous drug use. Big Brother began playing at the Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and at several other venues along the West Coast.

In 1967, the group released their self-titled debut album shortly after their breakthrough performance at the famous 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The attention given to Janis caused resentment within the band. But Joplin continued for a while, playing a key role in arranging and producing the album Cheap Thrills. "Piece Of My Heart" on the album became Big Brother's one and only big hit. 

Then in 1968, Joplin announced she was leaving the band for a solo career. She formed a new backup group, the Kozmic Blues Band, composed of session musicians as well as Big Brother guitarist Sam Andrew. By early 1969, Joplin was shooting at least $200 worth of heroin per day. While recording the album I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, producer Gabriel Mekler kept Joplin in his house during the recording sessions so he could keep her away from drugs and her drug-using friends.

Joplin performed in Frankfurt, Germany, Stockholm, Sweden and at Royal Albert Hall in London, among others. She appeared on The Tom Jones Show and The Dick Cavett Show on television. Kozmic Blues went Gold, but Ralph J. Gleason of the San Francisco Chronicle said that Joplin should "scrap her new band and go right back to being a member of Big Brother...(if they'll have her)."

Joplin released the single "Kozmic Blues", which reached #41 in the United States.

Another solid track on the album is "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)".

Joplin was invited to sing at the legendary Woodstock Festival in New York. Joplin was unaware of the festival's existence, and told her band they would be performing at the concert as if it were just another gig. Upon arriving by helicopter, Joplin was approached by numerous reporters, and she became nervous and excited.

Joplin was anxious to perform and arrived backstage, but several other bands were scheduled before her. Over the next 10 hours, Joplin shot heroin and drank alcohol. Finally, she took the stage in the late hours of Saturday, August 16, 1969 after superstars Creedence Clearwater Revival. Joplin's voice was hoarse and wheezy and she found it hard to dance. Joplin was unhappy with her performance (duh!) and her singing was not included by her own insistence in the documentary film or the Soundtrack to Woodstock.

Joplin also had problems at Madison Square Garden. In a duet Joplin sang with Tina Turner during a Rolling Stones concert in 1969, Joplin was described as being "so drunk, so stoned, so out of control, that she could have been an institutionalized psychotic" by biographer Myra Friedman.

Andrew, the lead guitarist who had left Big Brother with Joplin to form her back-up band, quit in the summer of 1969 and returned to Big Brother and the Holding Company without her. Joplin traveled to Brazil in 1970, where she tried to kick her heroin habit, but she fell back onto the dangerous road when she returned to the United States.

Around this time, Joplin formed the Full Tilt Boogie Band, which began touring in May of 1970. The group joined the all-star Festival Express train tour through Canada, performing alongside The Band, the Grateful Dead and Ten Years After. Joplin jammed with other performers and these performances are considered to be among her greatest.

Among her last public appearances were two broadcasts of The Dick Cavett Show. Joplin's last concert was at the Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1970, Joplin recorded tracks for a new album in Los Angeles with producer Paul Rothchild, who had produced albums for the Doors. At this time, Joplin still hadn't produced a major hit.

Joplin stayed at the Landmark Hotel while recording the album. Peggy Caserta, herself a heroin user whom Joplin had had a previous romantic relationship with, had become a dealer and had also checked into the Landmark because it attracted drug users. When Joplin learned of Caserta's presence, she begged her for heroin and within a few days became a regular customer.

After a recording session on October 3, Joplin and band member Ken Pearson went to Barney's Beanery for drinks. After midnight, Joplin drove him and a male fan who tagged along to the Landmark. The following morning, Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to show up at the studio. Road manager John Cooke drove to the Landmark to find her dead on the floor beside her bed, finally killed by heroin. Joplin's death came just 16 days after the death of Jimi Hendrix.

Although Joplin died before all the tracks were fully completed, there was enough usable material to compile an album. The result of the sessions was the posthumously released Pearl. It became the biggest-selling album of her career and contained a cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Me And Bobby McGee", which became Joplin's only solo hit. The single went all the way to #1 in the United States.

"Mercedes Benz" is another great track from the album.

"Move Over" showed the potential that Joplin had but never realized.

Another great track from Joplin is "Get It While You Can"

Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, like so many hundreds of other artists.  She doesn't make it into The Top 100 Female Artists* because of her dozens of hits, because she had only one.  We also factor in the number of quality album tracks, and it is those that enable Joplin to earn position #89*.